Priority is claimed from Swedish patent application No. 9902702-1 filed Jul. 15, 1999.
The present invention relates to a bunk arrangement for a truck cab, the bunk having at a free edge thereof substantially vertical safety belts, preferably attached to the ceiling of the cab, and a safety net.
A modern cab for a large truck or the like is normally provided with at least one bunk in a cab space behind the driver""s seat. The purpose of the bunk is to allow a second driver to sleep or rest, while a first driver is driving the truck, so that stops on a long journey can be kept at a minimum.
The bunk must be provided with safety equipment of the kind mentioned initially, so that both the person in the bunk and the driver in front of him are reasonably protected in the event of a collision or the like.
In earlier designs the safety net has normally been held up in its protective position by means of elastic straps or the like, preferably arranged at the safety belts. When not used, the net can be held down towards the bunk edge by means of bands or similar means. Experience shows that the use of nets of this kind is somewhat awkward and that objects may become entangled in the net. Further, such nets, generally, do not have a neat appearance.
A bunk arrangement without the drawbacks mentioned above is, according to the invention, attained in that the bunk at its free edge has a longitudinal cartridge for the safety net and that a net rod at the upper edge of the net has a locking device at each safety belt, the locking device guiding the rod along the belt and locking it thereto unless manually released against spring bias.
When the net is not used, it is concealed in the cartridge. When it is to be used, it is simply lifted by the rod along the belts and automatically locked in the desired position by the locking devices.
The cartridge, preferably, an aluminum extrusion, preferably, has a spring biased shaft for rolling up the safety net.
In many cases it may be desired to pivot the bunk up for increasing the available space under it when it is not in use. For this purpose conventional retractors for the safety belts can be arranged in the cartridge, and release knobs for the retractors can be arranged on the cartridge.